The general cleaning industry currently sells both dry and wet cleaning products. Wet products are essentially the simple combinations of dry substrates and liquid cleaners (e.g. liquid cleaners and impregnated wet wipes).
Marketing dry and saturated wet products separately worked well in the past when both the cleaning industry as well as the general public paid little or no attention to the potential harms to surfaces/environment/human body from using excess liquid formulations with harsh chemicals. Such harsh chemicals are particularly prevalent when tough stains need to be addressed. With a rapidly-changing cleaning landscape and an emerging green cleaning trend, continuing to stay on only dry and wet products will face different limitations for addressing these new cleaning challenges. This is particularly true for household cleaning when parents are generally very concerned about the contact between children and harsh chemicals in wet products.
One prior art attempt to provide cleaning efficacy without harsh liquids uses a layer of hardened thermosetting melamine foam (a formaldehyde-melamine-sodium bisulfite copolymer, manufactured by BASF under the name “Basotect”) for its superior scrubbing properties. The melamine foam layer, however, is brittle in nature and can break down easily to leave melamine foam residues on the surface. As a result, this cleaning foam is an expensive product for consumers to use and can leave behind melamine residues.
Developing a disposable wipe or towel that can easily remove tough stains such as permanent marker ink marks on hard surfaces has long been a desired but unachievable goal in the cleaning industry. Concept testing of such products always resonates well with consumers as current tough stain removal products are not only expensive but also can be limited in their application conditions (e.g., concerns for scratching, linting, durability, etc.). There is therefore a need for an inexpensive and effective stain-removing wiping product that is handy for consumers to use.